V7Goose

That is a typical problem. It is also not uncommon to actually smoke the audio output in one system when you just plug them together like that. The problem is that the audio amps and jacks are not designed to ever be connected to a different device, so sometimes the amp output is effectively pumped straight into the ground of the other device. When both devices are powered from the bike's 12V system, that creates a ground loop back to the first device, and THAT'S when the smoke starts. There are various devices you can buy or make that solve this problem, but I am not aware of anything commercially available specifically for a motorcycle. I have not personally used this device, but either one or two of them in your splitter circuit would probably solve your problem: http://www.crutchfield.com/p_127SNI135/PAC-SNI-1-3-5-Noise-Filter.html?tp=2653 Goose UPDATE: I found one specifically for motorcycles - looks like the Kennedy unit referenced in the post above. But it is expensive - over $100: http://www.cellset.com/AuxSwitchSet2.html

Those were sold by DiamondR for a few years. I guess he just couldn't sell enough of them, so they are no longer available. I use mine in the winter. Goose

I think all this talk about it has awakened the beast - today is not "normal" for this at all - I have only been using this one laptop all day, and my New Posts display has been reset at least four times in the past few hours! Goose

Well, it SHOULD be covered under warranty, but a lot of lousy dealers decline warranty work on even more obvious items. They have a tool that allows them to check the float level without removing the carbs, so that is the first thing they would do. But I have my doubts about the accuracy of that check anyway. I suspect that 99% of the shops would look at it, and even if it showed the floats high, they'd think it was close enough and say it was OK. More significantly, even if they agree to do it, I'd only give it about a 30% chance they even pull the carbs. They'll say they "fixed" it but do nothing at all. Finally, I don't think I'd want one of them messing with my floats! Fewer young mechanics have carb experience these days, and if they try to follow the Yamahaha shop manual, they will set them all WAY TOO LOW - that section has some major errors in it. This is one job, like the valve adjustment, that I would MUCH rather do myself unless I have a mechanic that I personally know and trust. Goose

Well, I haven't found it to follow any pattern. I regularly use four different computers (two laptops downstairs and two desktops upstairs, and I'm on this site every time I get on any of them), each one is logged on here, often multiple computers at the same time, and I NEVER log off the site. Some times I shut a computer down or put it in standby, and sometimes I do not. Even after I have shut down a computer for several days, when I reboot one or bring one out of standby, it still has me logged on here as soon as I bring up the browser. Now the strange part is that the amount of time between when it updates the "read" status of a thread (and therefore the one that show in New Posts) changes all the time. Usually, it only seems to be updated once a day, but other times it will happen several times, sometimes as soon as 1/2 to 1 hour after the last update. The oddest part to me is that a thread is not shown as "read" after I have read it and then re-click on the New Posts or otherwise refresh the browser display. Of course, for me, all this strangeness might just be caused by my use of multiple computers! Goose

Well, you only get symptoms if they are WAY out of adjustment, to the extreme. If they are WAY low, the engine can starve for fuel under high RPM and hard acceleration. If they are WAY high, you get gas from the overflow vents. In between those two extremes, a higher float level generally results is somewhat richer running at speed and lower fuel mileage. The good news is that floats virtually never just go out of adjustment - the setting never changes unless the float is damaged - potentially cracked with age or gets fuel soaked and looses flotation (only happens with older cork-type floats). So if the float or float needle valve is not damaged, the fuel level will always be at whatever level the float was last set at. So checking the float levels on most vehicles is rarely a concern - they are set properly from the factory and stay that way. The bad news is that if it is set wrong at the factory, it will stay wrong, as it is never checked under normal maintenance. And THAT IS THE PROBLEM with the 2nd gens - it seems that NONE of them are set properly from the factory! I have done about 15 bikes now, and only ONE had the floats fairly close to the right setting on all carbs. Out of the other 50+ carburetors, only TWO of them were even close to factory spec on the float level. That's two carbs, not two bikes! Virtually all RSV and RSTD carbs are set way high from the factory - close to the overflow level (about 1.5 times as high as they should be). I suspect that this is what causes so many of these bikes to smell like gas in the garage after you shut it down. So, the bottom line is this - if your bike runs good, the plugs never show black soot on the ceramic, you are happy with your fuel mileage, and you don't have a problem with the smell of gas, then forget about your carb floats - just ride and be happy. But if you have problems with any of the above, then I'd start by setting the floats correctly. Goose

I guess they are just pissed at me for posting the information - they just canceled my order for more shims without ever even bothering to send me an email like y'all got or offering me a discounted price! Now I don't feel bad at all about getting that first shim kit for $6! Goose

I'm can't fully explain it, but what you saw seems to be normal. I use the New Posts link almost exclusively anymore, but sometimes I notice that lots of threads that HAD new posts are now marked as read. My workaround whenever I suspect I may not be seeing all the threads I should is to go to Quick Links and check Today's Posts. That pulls up all threads updated in the last 24 hours, and I can go down the list until I see something that I know I already saw to catch up on all the "new posts". Goose

Yes, you have that nasty gas down there, just like we do up here. It does reduce MPG numbers, but not to a huge percent. You should still be averaging at least in the mid 30s. But who knows for sure - I am just entering a bunch of receipts in my computer, and I find that a whole lot of my fill-ups in the last two months have been back down around 31-33 MPG. We'll just have to burn a tank or two together! Goose

The front bolt in the battery cover on either side of the bike is just a dummy bolt (does not hold on the cover), and it fits perfectly. Goose

Maybe so, but that isn't the way it was written. Without correction, that statement would have been very confusing to readers who do not already understand the connection. It specifically referenced a "headphone jack" and "jack from inside the fairing" as two different things, when the fact is, both "jacks" as they exist on the RSV are the same AUX connection. Goose

The part in red above is WRONG!. The audio jack mounted on the front panel of the cassette deck is ONLY connected to the AUX input - if you set the RSV system to Cassette, you will not be able to use that input jack. Many of us have added a second aux input jack as shown in the first link. Easy to do, but you generally cannot use BOTH aux input jacks at the same time (such as for an MP3 player and a radar detector together) without something to isolate the two devices. If you remove your cassette deck, you just need to add a new AUX input jack somewhere and plug it into the same place the phone jack from the cassette deck was connected (where we add the Y splitter when adding a second jack). Goose

Getting to the Carbs: Start by removing the seat and tank. To get the air plenums off, you will need to first remove the metal straps on top (four screws each), and the two screws holding the crank case vent hose in the middle, then pull the hoses and wire bundles off to the side. After the clamps on top of each carb and the front clamp are loose, each plenum will just pull straight up. When taking off the metal straps, note that the inside front screw on each is longer than the other three, and be CAREFUL when putting all of those screws back at the end of this job - the plastic will strip very easily! Just barely snug the screws, do not try to get them tight. When you pull the crankcase breather connection loose from between the two air plenums, be careful of the little foam rings, most of them are stretched and falling apart - unfortunately they don't seem to be available in the parts breakdown. If your foam rings are torn or just stretched too bad, you can take them off and put a small bead of RTV gasket compound around the part in their place. When you lift off each air plenum, there is a vent hose connected on the rear that will just pop off (watch out for the little wire spring clips - they aren't really necessary, but you don't want to have one pop off and get stuck in a carb or something). Pull the carb assembly: Start by disconnecting the fuel line behind the right rear carb and open the two clips on top of the carbs to release the fuel line that goes to the tank. Then disconnect the two vent/overflow hoses that connect on top between the carbs and run forward to the front of the air filters. If you remove the vent hoses completely from the bike, you will have to pull either the lower cowlings or the air filters to put the ends back in the little rectangular clips in front of the filters. Best to just take them loose from the carbs and let them pull out the front of the carb frame when you take the carbs out of the bike. Also watch for the little plastic clip that holds them together between the carbs; you will need to take that off before you can pull the houses free. And judging by the number of those clips I find missing on older bikes, it seems a lot of folks forget to put it mack when they put the bike back together! At this point, all you need to do is loosen the hose clamp beneath each carb (but see the caution below) and disconnect the two electric plugs for the wires connected near the left front carb. You will find both of these plugs right up next to the frame under the large main wire bundle. The white two-wire plug is for the carb heaters, and the black triangular three-wire plug is the throttle position sensor. With the hose clamps below all four carbs loose, you can pull straight up on the assembly on each side to "pop" them loose from the intake manifolds (and this usually takes a lot of force!). With the carb assembly loose it slides straight out the left side. I generally wait until this point when the carbs are part way out to disconnect the throttle cables - access is much easier. Just loosen the long nut on each cable to allow it to slip off the bracket - as long as you don't move the small nut, the cables adjustment will not change. CAUTION! The screws on the hose clamps on the bottom of each carb are VERY soft metal. In addition, those clamps each have a metal collar to prevent you from over tightening them on the rubber boot. This means that the screws CAN be overtightened enough to freeze in place from the metal-to-metal contact. On most of the bikes I have worked on, at least one of those screws has been frozen so hard that the head stripped out, requiring me to drill the head off to remove the clamp. If you have this same problem, stuff a rag under the clamp before you drill it off so you don't loose that little collar. The screw can then be replaced with any standard 4mm screw from the hardware store. Another word of caution if your bike has the chrome carb covers - when you take those covers off, you then only have one screw holding on the plastic diaphragm covers. Be very careful to NOT pull up on those covers when you are trying to pull the carbs free from the intake boots, as you can damage them or dislodge the little o-ring. Putting the carbs back in: After making sure the hose clamps are still properly positioned on the top of the intake manifolds, slide the carbs in from the left side, but leave them just far enough out to make it easy to attach the throttle cables. Also make sure you start the two vent hoses through the hole in the front carb frame before you push the carbs all the way in. Then after making sure all the carbs are centered on the manifolds, you need to push down on them pretty hard to pop them back in place. Try to put the base of your hand on top of the carb throats, not on the plastic diaphragm covers. Re-route all the fuel lines and vent hoses appropriately, and don't forget to re-connect the two electrical plugs. Putting a drop or two of WD40 on each of the rubber intake boots will make it much easier to push the carbs back into place. Putting on the air plenums: Those air plenums that fit on top of the carbs WILL slide on and NOT try to push back up. I stress this here because a lot more experience has shown me that EVERY SINGLE TIME those air boxes want to spring back up when put back on top of the carbs, the rubber is caught someplace and buckled under the hose clamp. Start by making sure all three hose clamps are very loose (the two on the air plenum throats to the carbs, and the one on the rubber Y-connection in front of the air plenums). If you do not have that rubber throat caught on the neck of a carb, the box will fit nicely in place with ZERO movement, even as the hose clamps are tightened. Typically, the problem will be on the front carb; you need to push the plenum much further forward than you think to clear the front side of that carb and get it to slip into place without problems. If the rubber is not buckled in there, the plenum will fit fully down on the carbs and not spring back up at all. Unlike the lower hose clamps, those on top of the carbs do not have a metal collar to prevent them from being over tightened, so just make sure they are properly set in the grooves on the plenum and snug them up pretty good instead of trying to play Magilla.

I want to get my hands on old coils that anyone has taken off when suspecting them to be bad. Interested in coils from any models, but particularly 2nd gens. I have an old automotive oscilloscope that I want to use to try and identify what the "normal" cause of the failure is, and if there is anything we can do about it. In addition, I would like to see if I can devise some sort of test that anyone can use (without a scope or special tools) to accurately identify a bad coil. If you have changed one or more and are just going to toss the old coils, will you please send them to me instead? PM me and I'll send you my address. You can just slip one or more into a free Priority Mail flat-rate envelope (no weight limit) for $4.95. I'll gladly send you the $5 postage. Goose

No, I haven't, but I'm pretty certain it will work correctly if the engine is running - that will provide enough vibration and pulses in the fuel bowl (from the pump) to get the fuel to seek the correct level in the tube. I found it interesting to note that the same test in the tech manual for the antique 1st gen bikes specifies that the engine should be running for a bit, even though I didn't see that mentioned in the manual for the 2nd gen. It hasn't been much interest to me to re-do that test, since every single bike I have checked by pulling the carbs has needed them adjusted anyway. And I feel a whole lot more confident with the measurement done at the float using the calipers. Besides, pulling the carbs has gotten real simple after doing so many of them! Well, maybe it's just simple 'cause I'm telling other folks what to do more than I'm doing it myself!!!!

Hmmmmm, if you have ANY effort at all hitting 85, it would seem that something else is wrong. And that would go with the very low MPG too. Even cranking hard and running an actual 80 all day should still be over 30. All your plugs looked good, so there wasn't an obvious ignition problem. You need to bring that thing back here when you get a chance so we can try putting the scope on and check the strength of the spark. And I'd like to see what the exhaust gas analyzer shows us too. And besides those tests, I'd like to take both our bikes out and do a quick swap for a few miles to compare our impressions of the side-by-side performance. Of course, I've said before that you really cannot get valid comparable MPG numbers on a motorcycle by just checking a tank or two, so maybe there isn't anything wrong at all! The BEST check to to run a tank side-by-side with another RSTD after carefully filling both tanks the same, then compare the amount of gas they take at the end of the ride. We could do that too, even tho mine is a Venture; if we keep the speeds down so the wind resistance isn't a big factor, we should still get a good comparison. When ya coming back? Goose

Yes. Goose

Sorry Dave, those don't help at all. Unfortunately, you took a picture of me measuring the WRONG side of the float when I was showing you the difference in the height between the fat side and the thin side. And that is the problem with my tech writeup. I took the pictures before I realized that the two sides of the float were different heights, so I stress that they should all be measured from the fat side, but my picture shows measuring the thin side! Goose BTW - did your gas mileage seem any better on the way back to the sauna (Houston)?

Nothing surprising to me about that - what you describe is EXACTLY what I have felt on any rear tire that has flattened off to a square profile with relatively sharp edges. And ANY car tire you run will have that profile from the very first mile. A rounded MC tire will ride over an edge in the pavement with some control, but a square tire with sharp corner will always grab it and quickly jump the edge. Goose

I promised????? Geeze, I'm goin' down now! But actually, I think that your floats at .22 WERE a LOT off - that is 30% HIGHER than the shop manual specifies. So promises or not, I do think you'll get that 10%. And I guess I'll take new pictures on the next one I do. Goose Oh, best remember that those air plenums that fit on top of the carbs WILL slide on and NOT try to push back up. I stress this here because a lot more experience has shown me that EVERY SINGLE TIME those air boxes want to spring back up when put back on top of the carbs, the rubber is caught someplace and buckled under the hose clamp. If you do not have that rubber neck caught on the neck of a carb, the box will fit nicely in place with ZERO movement, even as the hose clamps are tightened. Typically, the problem will be on the front carb; you need to push the plenum much further forward than you think to clear the front side of that carb and get it to slip into place without problems.

In my opinion there is no "problem" mixing tire brands/patterns front to back. I do it all the time when testing different tires, since I am not about to take off a perfectly good front tire with thousands of miles left (I generally get close to two rear tires to one front). But this also lets me compare the handling of the bike with a mismatched set to the matched set when I finally mount the correct front tire. The tire manufacturers almost all say specifically that you should only mount a matched set of their tires, as the tread patterns are carefully designed to work best together. In fact, I almost agree with this. In my experience, the matched set has ALWAYS handled somewhat better than a mismatched set. But this difference is usually just a degree better, not so huge I would rate it as the difference between fair and good handling. Of course some front tire designs are just sooooo bad, they should never be used, either matched or not! The ugly super-fat Brickstone front tire is an example of this. The terrible handling from that tire can be greatly improved by raising the rear of the bike, but even then, it still makes the bike just handle "fair" compared to any other front tire, which will be "good" to "excellent" handling by comparison. So I suggest you feel free to mount a different brand of rear tire half way through the front. If you like the way that rear tires works, and plan to stick with it for the next rear tire, then buy a matching front when the time comes. On the other hand, if you want to change brands again when that rear tire is dead, then buy the front tire that matches the new rear you will go to next time. Goose

C'mon fellas, y're makin me blush! But thanx for the kind words, Goose

Juggler, you are right that oxygenated fuels have been around for more than a decade, but there was another big change about two or three years ago. That's when they got really clued in to the fouling of our ground water with MTBE (or something like that - I'm not taking the time to look it up). Thankfully, several states have banned MTBE, but none of the alternatives are good choices either. And it isn't just MTBE - the feds have made more stringent CO air quality standards, so all big cities with smog problems are forced to run oxygenated fuels trying to hit it. That was the biggest driver to the reformulation two years ago. I just published that bit from MCN 'cause I thought seeing the info from someone else might give more credence that me just spewing forth myself! Goose

Nothing needed, as far as I am concerned. This bike has PLENTY of performance. Of course, your expectations may be different than mine. Nothing wrong with that, but make sure you have hit the rev limiter a few times before you make your final judgment! Goose BTW - if you are trying to pass a line of cars at 80 while in 5th gear, you ain't clued in yet. Kick that baby down to 3rd if you want to do it right. You'll hit the rev limiter in 3rd around 96, but then 4th will quickly BURY the needle! And that is running two-up and FULLY loaded for an extended three-week trip (meaning I'm sure we were over the GVW for the machine).

As promised when I first mounted this rear Dunlop E3 about four months ago, here is an update on my impressions of the tire and the tread life. But first a very brief background on me for the few that may not already know my experience and preferences with tires on the RSV: I have a 2005 RSV that I have put 70,000 miles on, PLUS 15,000 miles I put on an 07 when I owned it for about 4 months. I have done a lot of testing on different tire brands on this bike, and I am VERY partial to the Avon Venom. It provides excellent handling, is virtually silent from new until death, and I get the most miles out of a Venom rear compared to all other brands I have tested - 14,000 each from four different Venom rear tires. With 10,000 miles on my first Dunlop E3 rear tire, I can confidently say I like this tire very much. The handling is at least as good as the Avon Venom, and the same goes for traction, both wet or dry. This tire inspires confidence in all conditions. As it wears, the tire is keeping a nice rounded profile - better than the Venom. The only downside so far is a bit of low noise it is beginning to generate in the sweepers. It is not too loud yet, but the Avons NEVER made any noise for me. I can see where it is coming from also - there is just a tad bit of scalloping detectable on the far edges of the tread (something that never happened on a Venom). Now let's talk about tire life. The number of miles one gets from a particular tire on a particular bike is a VERY individual thing. There are just too many variables in riding patterns, types of roads, loads, etc. etc. to effectively compare how many miles I get from tire "A" to what you can expect from the same tire. But there do tend to be some common mileage ranges for a particular tire, with a few riders getting significantly more or less than the majority. For example, the horrible stock Brickstone rear tire seems to be toast for most owners around 8,000 miles (that is what I got from it, too), and Avon Venoms seem to usually make somewhere between 12,000 and 15,000 miles. The Dunlop E3 tires are quite new in our size, so there have not been a lot of reports on them, but still, there have been a few members here claiming 20,000 miles on a rear E3! That seemed incredulous to me, so I just had to try one. And since I have gotten such uniform life from four Avon Venom rear tires, we should be able to get a very accurate comparison of how the E3 compares to the Venom. I measure a max tread depth of around .315" on a new E3, and with 10,000 miles on mine now, I measure the remaining tread at .16". That is effectively 1/2 if the original tread remaining, so it is looking pretty good that I will get more miles out of the E3 than I always have from a Venom. Can't tell yet how many, since we shouldn't run a tire all the way down until the center is smooth, but we'll see. Finally, let's talk price. When I bought mine, the E3 was going for about $10 less than the rear Venom (and about $30 less for the front!) - that made it an excellent deal in light of the life I am getting from it. Unfortunately, a quick check now just showed the two tires are currently priced about the same. So for the same price, I would happilly buy either tire right now; they both seem to be excellent choices for the RSV. Goose